Bovine TB continues to devastate farming family businesses in large parts of the country. I can assure you that the NFU remains totally committed firstly to stopping the spread and ultimately to eradicating this disease and recognises that this will only be achieved by using every available option.

If you been awed by news reports from the World Economic Forum in Davos, then you might not immediately think of it as a holiday destination. The twin villages of Davos and Klosters are magnets for both royals and world leaders but they're also attractive ski destinations with a literary past

Last autumn, more than 1,800 badgers lost their lives in Somerset and Gloucestershire in the name of bovine tuberculosis control. Now the government-commissioned report by independent experts, who have studied the evidence, has shown our grave concerns to be justified.

Health workers in developing countries face challenges that are often taken for granted in the developed world, but new technologies have the potential to become leap frog solutions that address such barriers.

On 23 September, the UK Government announced its contribution to the Global Fund and we got a step closer to the day when no child dies from Aids, TB or malaria. The UK has pledged £1billion over the next three years - providing the overall target of $15billion is met from other governments and donors.

Fresh from the horse meat scandal, DEFRA has found itself in a new controversy, having again failed the British consumer in food traceability and labelling. The public now knows that over 20,000 cattle infected with bovine TB enter the food chain in the UK each year, and the government doesn't know where they go, where they are sold, and who is eating them.

David Cameron has identified other priorities for this summit - trade, tax and transparency - and will host a pre-meeting focused on world hunger. These are all vital issues, but the Prime Minister also needs to protect what has already been achieved and should encourage the G8 to deliver on past promises.

So where in the world can you find the highest rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis? I'll give you a clue - it also happens to be one of only two regions in the world where the number of new HIV cases continues to rise every year. It's not Africa. It's not South America or even Asia. It's the European region.

National Farmers' Union and the majority of farmers - but not all - may believe that badger culls will do the trick, and a lot of politicians want to keep the farmers onside. And it will probably pay electoral dividends for a while. But longer term this 'solution' is could even make things worse...

Eight years ago, July Letsebe was lying on a bed in his small tin shack, waiting to die. Seriously ill with tuberculosis and - although he didn't know it yet - HIV, he had all but given up hope of surviving for more than a few weeks.